Andersen isn't criminal, does brand have value?

For nearly 90 years, Arthur Andersen had been the premier brand in public accounting. But for the last four, its name has been mud.

Vaporized by a 2002 criminal conviction, one of the most venerable business monikers in Corporate America seemed about as valuable as an Enron Corp. stock certificate.

But with last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning that conviction, the biggest  though hardly the only  stain on the Andersen name is gone. So, we asked experts in the accounting, branding and corporate identity businesses to handicap the value of the Andersen name if a new owner wanted to revive it.

The majority say the chance of a Martha Stewart-style rebound was a long shot. "It's over," says Jack Trout, a brand marketing consultant at Trout Partners of Connecticut.

Adds Allen Adamson, a consultant with Landor Associates, a San Francisco-based branding and design firm, "It would require so much rebuilding that you'd be far better off starting with a clean slate."

While many have given up the former Chicago-based accounting giant for dead, some still see potential for the name to live on.

"I'd be very bullish on the name," says Allan Koltin, CEO of Chicago-based PDI Global Inc., a consultant for accounting firms. "Andersen had the best brand name in the profession for, arguably, 50 years."

Simon Williams, president and CEO of corporate branding consultancy Sterling Group of New York, says the brand is "perfectly restorable." His firm has done design and consulting work for brands like Dove, Hershey's and Gevalia. "If there were an Andersen 2.0, I think people would be quite intrigued," Mr. Williams predicts.

Paul Argenti, a professor of corporate communication and reputation at Dartmouth College, says the key to reviving the name would be grouping together partners  potentially retired Andersen alumni  who could foster trust and promote the firm as "super socially responsible."

"I think they would have a pretty good shot at it. I think within a couple of years, Arthur Andersen could come back," Mr. Argenti says.

An Andersen spokesman declines to comment. He would not say whether the firm has a strategy to sell the name or whether it has received inquiries to purchase it.